


Killing Jane

by The_Alias (Artemis_Day)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Assassins & Hitmen, BAMF Bucky Barnes, BAMF Natasha Romanov, Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, F/F, F/M, HITMEN IN LOVE, Jane Foster Loves Science, Jane Foster is an adorable science chipmunk, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019, Marvel Polyship Bingo, Pre-Threesome, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Natasha Romanov, Threesome - F/F/M, who makes trained killers fall in love with her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24252868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/pseuds/The_Alias
Summary: When Bucky Barnes and Natasha Romanov were sent to kill Jane Foster, they never expected the mission to end like this. But maybe they should've.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Jane Foster, James "Bucky" Barnes/Jane Foster/Natasha Romanov, James "Bucky" Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Jane Foster/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 9
Kudos: 47
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, Ladies of Marvel Bingo 2019, Marvel Polyship Bingo 2020





	Killing Jane

**Author's Note:**

> Written for: 
> 
> Marvel Polyship Bingo Square N1: Assassins  
> Bucky Barnes Bingo Square C4: Bucky/Natasha  
> Ladies of Marvel Bingo Square W5: Running Away Together

All was quiet in the desert. Puente Antiguo was a nominal town made up of three blocks of dusty shops and a few aging ranch-style houses scattered through the sand. A pilot flying overhead could be forgiven for thinking it was all a bunch of well-placed boulders with no human life to speak of. With only one bar that closed at midnight and a 7-11 the only chain store for miles, it was just about the last place Bucky Barnes ever expected to find a target.

Yet Puente Antiguo was indeed where Dr. Jane Foster, Nobel prize-winning astrophysicist who discovered the secret to harnessing wormholes for interstellar travel, made her home.

He’d had to check with his contact twice to make sure he had the right place. That a former fringe scientist started out in the desert wasn’t much of a shock. That she’d stayed after proving herself right and getting truckloads of money poured over her head was. Shouldn’t she be building herself a ten-story mansion with a giant observatory right now? Or becoming a globe-trotting public speaker telling a dramatized version of her life story to the masses? 

Instead, she was here, in a refurbished diner with glass walls and a lock that might as well have been made of cardboard. 

It was like she wanted assassins to come for her. 

Bucky’s mission was simple. Go in, put a bullet in Foster’s head, get out. Report back with photo evidence of termination and the job was done. He got it all from a gravelly voice in his ear on his way to the airport.

“You’ll receive payment promptly upon completion of the mission,” it said. “Good luck, Barnes. Hail HYDRA.”

“Hail HYDRA,” Bucky had said like there was glass in his mouth.

Six years. Six fucking years he’d been on this stupid deep-cover mission and he still couldn’t get himself to say that convincingly. How he hadn’t been caught yet, he’d never know.

Now he had a mission to complete and two superior officers to deal with. Fury had been clear in their weekly briefing session. Foster was to be brought in unharmed. Faking her death would be a piece of cake. When HYDRA went down (which would be soon. Always soon. So very soon…) she’d go back to her life no problem. Unless SHIELD still had need of her of course.

Bucky crept along the side of the building. Most of the lights were off, and he meshed with the shadows like he’d been born of them. Coyotes howled in the sand dunes. The last few drunks from the bar slurred pop songs as they staggered home. Without them, the streets were empty of life. No one to witness the ‘murder’ of Puente Antiguo’s resident celebrity. His gun was loaded with a tranq dart. A few packets of fake blood would be good enough for HYDRA. The bastards were so smug these days, they probably wouldn’t even think to look closely-

A footstep. Right behind him.

Bucky whirled around and caught a fist mid punch. It’s owner hissed as he threw her back. For a moment, the single blinking street light illuminated red hair.

“Fucking hell, Natasha,” Bucky snapped. “What are you doing here?”

The last time they saw each other, handcuffs and honey were involved. Now was not the time for that, no matter how good her hips looked in that catsuit.

Natasha frowned, tapping the gun on her belt. “Same thing you are. Killing Jane Foster.”

“I’m taking her in,” Bucky ground his teeth. “But I have to make it look like a kill for HYDRA.”

She whistled. “I would hate to have your job.”

“Why does your boss want Foster dead?”

“Why does HYDRA?” Natasha shrugged. “We’re not paid to ask questions, just to get the job done.”

 _‘No matter how awful that job is,’_ Bucky filled in. 

It wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation.

The side door burst open. Bucky hadn’t realized they were standing in front of it. Out came Jane Foster with a baseball bat. It was about as tall as she was and only slightly skinnier. Her hair was a mess, but it seemed less from sleep and more from just not brushing it enough. Eyes bulging, she cast her punishing gaze upon their frozen faces.

“May I help you?” she asked.

Bucky and Natasha looked at each other. She nodded at him to speak. He nodded back. She mouthed an extremely vulgar Russian word at him and then smiled at Jane. “Hi, I’m Natasha and this is Bucky. We’re fans of yours.”

“Fans?” Jane said, eyebrows raised.

No one could blame her for being suspicious. Bucky sure didn’t. Goddamn, he could kill Natasha for this one. “We uh… wanted to meet you?”

After staring blankly at them for several agonizing seconds, Jane’s frown cracked into a massive grin. “Well, you’re in luck, I was just looking over plans for the new Einstein-Rosen bridge generator I’m developing. Come on in!”

She speed-walked back into the lab, waving at them to follow. Bucky wanted to, but his feet were stuck to the ground. One look at Natasha told him she wasn’t doing any better. From the day they met, they’d been weirdly in-sync. Almost like they could read each other’s minds. 

_‘She’s adorable…’_

The lab was an absolute mess, par for the course for scientists in Bucky’s experience. Boxes full of old computer parts and disassembled telescopes turned the floor into a veritable maze. He nearly tripped twice over a rusting car engine (why did she need _that?_ ) and while Natasha could maintain her trademark grace in the middle of a twenty-person firefight, her gait was as uneven as his. 

By the time they completed their journey, Jane was at her desk and typing at supersonic speed. “Okay, so the biggest problem with the bridge so far has been keeping it stable long enough to allow a living being to step through.” She pulled up more than twenty screens, reading through all of them in less than a millisecond each. “Last month, we tried to send a baseball from one side of the country to the other. Let’s just say we didn’t score a home run that time.”

Of all people, Natasha laughed. With a smile and everything. “So what’s the plan now?”

“Well, I could give you the long-winded and sciency explanation,” Jane said, “but for the sake of brevity, we need a more powerful engine. That’s what I’m partnering with Tony Stark for.” 

“You’re partnering with _Stark?_ _”_ Bucky’s eyes went wide. Nothing in either of his reports mentioned Tony Stark being involved. Did Fury know about this? Did Pierce? Goddamn, he hated those assholes. Both of them.

Jane paused. “Wait, did I just say that?” Her face turned red. “Crap, I’m not supposed to talk about that yet. Keep it to yourselves, okay?”

“Sure,” Bucky and Natasha said in unison.

An alarm went off and Bucky reached for his gun. The instinct to start shooting was strong, but he resisted long enough to realize it was coming from Jane’s phone. On the screen were words and numbers that made no sense to him, but clearly meant the world to Jane.

“Oh my God!” She leaped up, knocking her chair on its side as she vaulted over the desk. “I almost forgot. Tonight’s the night!”

Natasha smoothed out her form-fitting top over however many knives she’d chosen to carry tonight. If Bucky listened closely, he could hear her pounding heart slow down. Even if he’d imagined it, the sweat beading at the side of her head was very real.

“Stay cool,” he muttered, earning another Russian curse.

They followed Jane outside, where she’d set up a telescope in the sand. Before them was nothing but desert, but also nothing but stars. Bucky hadn’t noticed before when he was scoping out Jane’s place for potential points of exit. Now it was all he could see. Counting them was impossible. He stopped at thirty-eight. A soft gasp told him he wasn’t alone in his epiphany. Even in Russia, the night sky was never so bright.

“Just need to adjust the lens,” Jane muttered to herself. “If I don’t get this right, we’re going to miss it.”

“Miss what?” Natasha asked.

“520P!” Jane exclaimed. That explained everything. “It’s a comet that’s going to be visible tonight. I’ve been waiting all week to see it.”

Her eyes were wide and almost sparkling with joy. Anime girls had nothing on Jane Foster. 

“I guess you’ve tracked a lot of comets in your time,” Bucky remarked, even as his chest tightened for seemingly no reason. 

“A few,” Jane said. “Not as many as I’d hoped. Now that I’m not working twelve-hour shifts anymore, I’m trying to make up for lost time.”

When the comet came, Bucky knew it from her gleeful squeal as she aimed the telescope left. Squinting, he caught a tiny ball of light soaring past a million other balls of light. Jane bobbed up and down like a child promised ice cream as she watched it go.

“This is amazing,” she gushed. Looking away from the eyepiece, she beckoned Bucky. “Come here!”

“Oh no, I’m fine,” Bucky said, “you’ve been waiting for this longer than I have.”

“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it,” Jane said sheepishly. “Also my therapist tells me I need to be more open with people and not so absorbed in what I want. I used to tell my old intern to never touch my telescope, but I know I’m better than that.”

A hand on his back pushed him forward. “Go on,” said Natasha. “Take a look.”

There it was, Bucky’s biggest weakness. Beautiful, insistent women. He bent over the eyepiece as Jane stepped back. Within the pitch-black sky dotted with stars, a ball of icy fire sailed across his vision. Heavenly white with a blue-tinted tail, it put all the photographs he’d ever seen in science textbooks to shame. The light it gave off felt brighter than the sun and almost as warm, though perhaps that was just his proximity to Jane.

“Just think, one of these days, we’ll get to ride alongside a comet,” she said. “We’re going to find so many new planets. New galaxies.”

“Neptune,” Natasha muttered. Bucky tore himself away from the telescope to look at her. She blushed. “I’ve always liked Neptune. Not sure why…”

Jane touched her shoulder. “We’re going to see Neptune.”

“I like Mars,” Bucky mumbled. “I’m not all that original.”

“Hey, that’s fine,” Jane said. “The sky’s the limit!”

Backing away, Bucky allowed her to retake her spot behind the telescope. Soon it would be Natasha’s turn, assuming Jane didn’t get lost in thought and forget they were there. It seemed unlikely. Every few seconds she’d turn around to give them updates on the comet's progress or spout whatever random space-related tidbits came to mind.

“Did you know that neutron stars can spin up to six-hundred times per second?”

Natasha nudged Bucky. “I’m not killing her.”

“Neither am I,” he said under his breath. “Not giving her to SHIELD either.”

“Guess that means we’re on the run.”

“Guess so.”

“What was that?” Jane asked while adjusting the lens. 

Since he’d saddled Natasha with introductions, Bucky figured he owed her this one. “We actually need you to come with us right now, Dr. Foster. I know this is sudden and very confusing, but it is urgent.”

Jane stood up straight. “Does that mean you guys aren’t going to kill me?”

Bucky’s jaw fell. “Uh…”

“What makes you think we’re here to kill you?” Natasha asked.

Jane folded her arms. “You guys show up unannounced in the middle of the night dressed all in black and carrying guns. I may be single-mindedly obsessed with space, but I’m still pretty smart.”

“I can see that,” Bucky said, dropping all pretenses as he took Jane by the hand. “I’m sorry, Doctor, but we have to get moving. There’s no telling how long we have before our superiors realize what we’ve done.”

“I’d say about three minutes,” Natasha said, checking her watch. 

“Three minutes?” Bucky stared at her. “Did you just call someone?”

“No, but the backup sniper I was sent with doesn’t pull punches.” She took Jane’s other hand, purely a gesture of goodwill and maybe even budding friendship. “Okay, let’s go.”

It took a little more time than Bucky’s would’ve liked. Jane understood the severity of the situation enough to leave her equipment behind (“I can build new stuff. It’s okay.”) but not enough to keep from packing her notebooks, laptops, and a much smaller telescope with her name painted on the side into a duffel bag. When they rushed to Bucky’s car, it was in a hail of bullets. Natasha returned fire as Bucky shielded Jane from the onslaught with his body. After herding her into the back seat, he got behind the wheel and hit the gas. He pulled a sharp turn, allowing Natasha to get in the passenger seat. The snipers’ final shot missed her head by mere inches.

Racing down the street, they left Puente Antiguo behind in a cloud of dirt. Pretty soon, word would get back to Natasha’s handlers that their best agent had gone rogue for a scientist. As soon as they knew, SHIELD would know, and as soon as SHIELD knew… well, at least he’d never have to vomit out another ‘Hail HYDRA’ ever again. 

“Okay, this is not how I expected my night to go,” Jane said, clutching the duffel and what remained of her worldly possessions. “But you know, it is kind of exciting. Not the almost getting shot part, but I’m actually looking forward to seeing what comes next.”

What came next was weeks if not months of hotel hopping, changing identities, and trying to stay ten steps ahead of every government agency in the world while also not getting recognized by civilians or questioned by beat cops at the ATM. Not to mention what would happen if they did get caught. Or if they trusted the wrong person. Or if HYDRA and the KGB sent their other top assassins after them.

hose were all terrifying and soul-crushingly dismal prospects, but when Bucky looked and saw Natasha’s knowing smirk and Jane’s hopeful smile like she trusted him with her life… yeah, it was pretty exciting, too.


End file.
